Abstract:
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) has a surface moored buoy network named TRITON (TRIangle Trans-Ocean Buoy Network) for observing oceanic and atmospheric variability in the Pacific Ocean and its adjacent seas in cooperation interested Japanese and foreign agencies and institutions. The principal scientific objective is ... to understand variations of ocean circulation and heat/salt transports with emphasis on ENSO, the Asian monsoon, and decadal scale variability that influences world wide climate change. The buoys will be deployed by JAMSTEC in collaboration with many countries in and around the Pacific Ocean as part of international climate research programs for scientific research on warm water in the equatorial ocean affecting world climate change.

The buoys measure wind, air temperature, humidity, precipitation, short wave radiation, water temperature, salinity and current. The water temperature and will be measured down to 750m depth. The data will be transmitted via satellite near real time and provided to researchers in the world. JAMSTEC will deploy 18 buoys in the tropical Pacific and 2 buoys in the mid latitude in the north Pacific. In the A-area USA has deployed Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) buoys, JAMSTEC will replace those since 1999.For more detailed information about TRITON, see the TRITON Home page (http://www.jamstec.go.jp/jamstec/TRITON/real_time/php/top.php).